


The New Imperial Salute

by satanindisguise



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dabbing, Misunderstandings, Pranks, The Author Regrets Nothing, blame the little blade discord for this, there's a next gen scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 17:47:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19399246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/satanindisguise/pseuds/satanindisguise
Summary: What started out as a harmless joke between Pidge and Lance ends up changing the universe in a very peculiar way.





	The New Imperial Salute

It had started off as a joke between Pidge and Lance, telling Lotor that a dab was actually an Earth way of salutation and respect. Of course, they didn’t expect it to spread as fast as it did.

It began with Lotor explaining to Keith that he had learned one of his planets salutes, while they thought they had been busted, it turned out that Keith had no idea what a dab was and he ended up thinking it was a salute as well. Things just got better from there.

Within a month, the Blades of Marmora had picked up on it and they had taken to using the new ‘salute’ whenever they greeted the paladins or coalition. Needless to say it caused some confusion between the humans who weren’t aware of the prank,though it didn’t take long to get Hunk and Shiro on board, the latter even agreeing to cover for them and say that it had been a gesture introduced by the Garrison if any questions were asked. 

After two months, the dab had spread to most of the Galran empire and the majority of the Voltron coalition used it to greet their once-enemies as well. That was when it became clear that things were getting way out of hand.

“You mean to tell me that the salute which has been adopted by nearly every inhabited planet in the known  _ universe _ , is a meme?”, Keith’s voice was full of horror although there was a light tint of amusement there was well, probably from the realisation of how hilarious this whole ordeal was.

“...Yeah”, Pidge admitted, her shoulders slumping slightly, “We didn’t mean for it to get this out of hand, it was only supposed to be a harmless prank on Lotor”.

Keith sighed, “I guess that explains the looks I was getting from the Garrison officials when the empire greeted them. They looked like they were going to pass out”. 

Lance piped up at that, the beginnings of a grin spreading out across his face, “I heard Iverson talking to some of the other high ups, they’re all too scared to speak up about it because they’re afraid of pissing off the Galra”. It would be funny to think about if it weren’t for the fact that the Galra got pissed off so easily, there was no telling what coming clean to them about their salute being considered ridiculous on Earth would do. 

“So do we just let them keep doing it and hope that nobody tells them?”, Pidge asked, glancing around at her teammates. 

“Probably the best thing we  _ can _ do, telling them would take too much damage control”, Keith admitted, although it was clear that he was extremely embarrassed by this whole ordeal. The others nodded, cleaning up a mess that size probably wouldn’t be possible, all they could do was hope for the best and pray that none of the human diplomats would tell the empire about the true meaning behind their Imperial salute.

~~~~

By some miracle, the coalition was never informed about what a dab was, although a handful of members managed to figure out anyways. Luckily, they thought it was hilarious and agreed to keep it to themselves and not ruin the prank which had been going on for the better part of four decades. They got so good at pretending that it was actually a salute that the dab meme was eventually forgotten, remaining only in the memories of those who had been on earth when the paladins had first been catapulted into space. 

It has been 38 years since the prank began and as the Paladins pass on their legacy to another generation of defenders, they also have knowledge to pass on. 

“You have  _ got _ to be kidding me”, Kira, Allura’s successor as blue paladin said, looking at the former paladins with a shocked expression plastered across her multicoloured face. “All this time we’ve been doing this super formal salute and now you tell us that it was a  _ meme _ ?!”

Their predecessors all nodded seriously, looking at them with nothing but sincerity in their eyes. “This is something we’ve strove to keep a secret for years and I’m hoping that you can continue to do so”, Pidge said, her wording making it seem more like she was passing on some ancient knowledge that the fate of the universe rested upon than the truth behind why they secretly called the Galra the meme empire.

“We’ll keep it a secret, don’t worry about that”, Eloen told them, their scarlet eyes glinting in determination that definitely looked like it was aimed towards something other than what they were discussing. The rest of them nodded, all looking like they were prepared to protect this knowledge with their lives now that they had it. 

The new yellow paladin piped up, “So I can’t tell anyone? Not even papa?”, the question seemed to be directed more at Keith than any of the others. 

“ _ Especially _ not your papa, he’d have my head for this”, Keith told him, glancing around as if Lotor could walk in at any moment and hear the conversation. The others nodded in mutual agreement, Lotor would be  _ pissed _ if he found out the truth, probably more so than anyone else.

A voice behind them made everyone in the room go still as they turned on their heels to face Lotor, standing in the doorway. “What was it you don’t want me to know?”. 

Nobody got a chance to speak before Keith had bolted from the room, leaving everyone else to face Lotor’s questioning alone.

**Author's Note:**

> This was mentioned on a discord server that I'm on and I offered to write it. There's no way I would've come up with this alone.


End file.
